You’ve heard the old joke about a team playing 12-on-11 when an official’s calls seem to keep going against them.
On Monday night, the San Francisco 49ers really did have an extra defender in stripes.
In one of the weirdest plays of this NFL season, or any NFL season, Lamar Jackson took an intentional grounding safety after he tripped over a fallen official in the end zone. The Baltimore Ravens probably weren’t too pleased about that comical predicament..
Umpire Alex Moore was well behind the play, as usual, when Jackson dropped back to pass. Jackson was under pressure right away and kept retreating. Moore kept retreating too, but he couldn’t keep backpedaling to stay behind Jackson trying to escape the rush at full speed. Moore stumbled as he was going backward and right into Jackson’s path in the end zone. Jackson tripped over the umpire and had to try to unload the ball before he went down.
Because the ball didn’t get past the line of scrimmage, it was intentional grounding. Because the penalty happened in the end zone, it was a safety. That’s horrible luck for Baltimore and quite a break for the 49ers.
Moore was seen later on the ESPN broadcast laughing and smirking in a “Wanna Get Away?” type of reaction. There’s not much else he could have done, and sometimes the officials on the field become an unwanted part of a play. The position themselves so they rarely are in the way of players, but sometimes it’s unavoidable.
Moore wasn’t a well-known official before Monday night. He got plenty of attention early during one of the most anticipated matchups of the NFL season. It’s not a tackle he wanted to make.